Not Your Villain (Sidekick Squad #2)(6)



The desert gives way to mountains and then lush, tall trees. He pulls out his sketchpad and tries to capture the shifting landscapes.

Most of the other travelers get off the train at the Middleton stop, and Bells is left alone in his compartment. Only two more hours to go.

He falls asleep in the soft glow of comforting holos on his DED and wakes up groggy. He looks out the window and then sends Emma and Jess pictures of the forests and mountains, expanses of green, and blue, blue skies.

Jess responds with a series of amazed emojis. Bells laughs as they float above his wrist and then checks the time; Emma must be at volleyball practice.

He wishes he could tell Emma and Jess about his powers, how excited he was when he first discovered he could change himself, and how hard it was to hold the shift at first. But he can’t tell them, neither about his struggles, nor about his triumphs.

He’s been going to the program since he was twelve. He likes the camaraderie of the classes; he likes catching up with Christine and the twins summer after summer. He wonders whom he will see back at training. Last session, there were about twenty students: some teenagers and some in their twenties. Having realized they will never be chosen for the Heroes’ League of Heroes, most of the older students move on. Last summer, no one from the summer session was selected for the League, and only two students from the other training sessions were accepted into the Associated League. That’s a record low for new heroes. Almost everyone knows their likenesses won’t be on cereal boxes anytime soon… or ever.

Some meta-humans finish the program and no one knows for sure what happens to them, but some people with powers must become villains.

Bells shudders, thinking of Dynamite and his latest face off with Captain Orion in New Bright City. It was nearly the sort of disaster the country hadn’t seen since WWIII: Dynamite planned to set off a bomb with his pyrotechnics, but Captain Orion confronted him before he could. The battle was brutal, but she won in the end, and Dynamite was cuffed in ability-dampening tantalum and sent to Meta-Human Corrections. Captain Orion was so brave, saving all those people. Bells wants to stop crime, just like Orion does.

Bells brings up the official message from his advisors.

We are pleased to welcome you back to Meta-Human Training. After seeing your progress, we are considering you for the Heroes’ League of Heroes…

Bells will be a hero; he knows it—the first hero since Powerstorm to join the League, young and brave and powerful. People will cheer for him, and there will be comic books and everything.

His daydream is interrupted at the next stop in Redwood County when a nervous-looking kid with a backpack and paintbrushes crammed into his front pocket slides into the seat across from him. He barely looks twelve years old, but that doesn’t surprise Bells. It’s easy to navigate all public transportation in the Collective. Bells started using buses and trains by himself when he was younger than this guy.

“Um, excuse me, is this… is this train going to Aerial City?”

“Yeah,” Bells says.

“Oh, good.” The boy slumps into the seat. “I’ve never taken the hovertrain, and this is the first time I’ve been out of Redwood County by myself.” He beams at Bells. “Hi, I’m Derek. I’m going to art camp.”

Bells chuckles. He made sure there were art programs that existed in Aerial City before he made his excuse to his friends, but he was so wrapped up in the excitement of Meta-Human Training that he forgot that art camp was a real thing. “Bells,” he offers.

“Cool name!”

“Thanks, I picked it out myself,” Bells says, grinning.

*

He remembers the day clearly; it was his first day at Little Muffins Pre-School. He was five years old, and his parents were more nervous than he was. Ma kissed him on the forehead, and Dad told him that, if he wasn’t having fun anymore, they could come pick him up.

He laughed at them. He’d been ready ever since Simon and Sean started school and came home with stories.

He was late today because of traffic, but he was very excited and nervous. He liked to draw and brought a new set of color pencils, though most people just use the colors on their DED. He liked drawing on his DED, too, but he loved the way things look on paper.

“Oh! Hello, there. You’re just in time for art! What’s your name, sweetheart?”

He didn’t say anything, just looked nervously at his feet and tugged on the edges of Simon’s jacket. It was a cool jacket, the kind that Starscream wore, and he’d begged Simon for forever to let him wear it, and finally his brother just gave it to him. He thought he looked very cool.

The teacher smiled at him. It was a nice smile, indulgent, and she shook the holo on her DED. There was a list of names, with little check marks next to all of them except one. He saw the letters and knew what they were. It was his name, but not really. He didn’t know what name he wanted yet, and Ma said that was okay, but this lady didn’t know that.

“Could that be you?” she asked in a gentle tone.

“No.”

“Okay,” she said, putting a check mark next to the name. “What do you want me to call you?”

He didn’t know! He was still picking! He wanted to explain to the teacher that he couldn’t decide between Starscream and Fireheart. But he got messed up, stumbling over the words. And it was all too much, so he just stuck his tongue out at her.

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